Castaneda, principals square off at Alisal meeting | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian

Castaneda, principals square off at Alisal meeting | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian

Castañeda, principals square off at Alisal meeting

News conference on school district's future takes a contentious turn

Alisal Union School District board president Jose Castañeda made a plea for harmony Friday to educators awaiting the appointment of a state trustee to oversee the district.

He didn't get it.

At an often-raucous news conference in the district's offices, three elementary school principals echoed the assessment of California State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, who said Thursday that a "culture of intimidation and mistrust" prevails in the district, thanks to the board.

The principals — Trine Rodriguez of Fremont, Mary Magana of Dr. Oscar F. Loya, and Sonia Jaramillo of Cesar E. Chavez — repeated Mitchell's words and added some of their own: "fear," "disrespect," "micromanagement." They were among 11 principals to receive preliminary layoff notices this week.

Castañeda said Mitchell might have been referring to the board's makeup prior to three months ago.

"I'm hoping that this new board is not what they're referring to as that climate," he said. "Because if anything, we have always opened our doors to communicate with the principals and school sites. In the past that communication did not exist."

Rodriguez differed.

"I'm 100 percent sure he was referring to this board that is in power, that is micromanaging and not following chain of command," she said. "Are you here for kids? Mr. Castañeda, I have lost respect for you."

"That's OK," he said.

"Because you have disrespected me," she said. "Today was the first day in 28 years of my life in educationthat I received a [preliminary layoff] notice. You should be embarrassed, and you do owe me an apology, because that is disrespectful."

Elia Gonzalez-Castro, Hartnell College board trustee, said she was "embarrassed" by Castañeda's 

Conservatives carry Texas curriculum

Conservatives carry Texas curriculum

Conservatives carry Texas curriculum

Saturday, March 13, 2010

By James C. McKinley Jr., The New York Times

AUSTIN, Texas -- After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
The vote was 10-5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.
The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. But in the digital age, that influence has diminished, as technological advances have made it possible for publishers to tailor books to individual states.
In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and believe that the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and GOP moderates who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.
Since January, board Republicans have passed more than 100 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a panel of teachers.
"We are adding balance," Don McLeroy said after the vote. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left."
Battles over what to put in science and history books have occurred for years in the 20 states where state boards must adopt textbooks, most notably in California and Texas. But rarely in recent history have conservative board members left such a mark on a social studies curriculum.
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Hispanic figures as role models for the state's large Hispanic population were consistently defeated,

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10072/1042510-84.stm#ixzz0i4PZOD8G

The Militant - March 22, 2010 -- ‘We can’t be passive’ about attacks on public education

The Militant - March 22, 2010 -- ‘We can’t be passive’ about attacks on public education

‘We can’t be passive’ about
attacks on public education

BY BILL ARTH
AND WENDY LYONS
LOS ANGELES—More than 2,000 people marched through downtown Los Angeles March 4 to protest cuts in funding to public education. There were rallies of 2,000 at California State Long Beach and 500 at the University of California, Los Angeles, and smaller rallies at the Cal State Los Angeles and Dominguez Hills campuses. Walkouts were reported at six high schools here.

Lindsay Cozart told the Militant she was taking a semester off from college and working to save money to go back to school. “They should march from one end of the city to the other. This is affecting the entire state,” she said.

Mario Medina, a garment worker, is taking evening English classes at the Jefferson adult public school. He said most of the teachers and students there joined the protest. “They want to close the adult school,” he said. “Right now we don’t pay for the classes. They want to open up new programs that you have to pay for. It’s very important for workers to have the school. We’re trying to learn the language.”

“We’re here because things are getting worse,” said Jose Cebrian, a student at Belmont High. “Janitors are getting laid off, football is cut back, and after-school programs are being cut.” He said that some classes have 50 students. They can only rarely take textbooks home and their gym class is 60 people.

“This protest is a call out to let people know we can’t be passive,” said Jose Hernandez, a Cal State Fullerton student. “I’m for restructuring the whole education system from the bottom up so we are not just trained to be robots in a capitalist society.” Referring to cutbacks to humanities classes, he added, “They want a society with no heart, that just produces.”


Related articles:
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Thousands rally against school layoffs
Scotland protest opposes school cutbacks
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Defend social gains, workers’ unity

Why Immigration Helps Wages in California - Newsweek.com

Why Immigration Helps Wages in California - Newsweek.com

Why Immigration Boosts Wages—and Not Just In California

As the white house revives immigration reform—an issue the president is discussing with congressional leaders—it may want to ponder the effects of curbing foreign labor. While immigrants are blamed for dragging down American wages and stealing jobs, University of California, Davis, economist Giovanni Peri comes to a different conclusion. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Peri trowels through nearly five decades of immigration data and finds that foreign workers have boosted the economy, jacking up average income without crowding out American laborers. For each percentage of the workforce that is foreign-born, he found an almost 0.5 percent bump in average wages. In California, where the percentage of immigrants in the workforce has jumped more than 25 points since 1960, that means an almost 13 percent bonus—roughly $8,000. Immigrants, Peri says, push native-born workers into better-paying positions, expanding the size of the job pie so unskilled Americans aren't left out.

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What's obvious to an economist, however, is hard to translate into politics. The most popular stances on immigration involve citizenship for illegals already here and border security to shut out everyone else. Less likely to land votes: a guest-worker program that brings in labor to meet demand and keep wages afloat. But without such a program, says Peri, "the U.S. is essentially giving up on gains."

| state, year, districts - News - The Orange County Register

| state, year, districts - News - The Orange County Register

Behind the cuts: Why schools plan so many teacher layoffs

Q. Why are school districts warning so many teachers of layoffs again this year?

A. School districts in Orange County are planning to cut $365 million from their spending plans in the 2010-11 school year in response to state funding shortfalls. Having already made deep cuts to student programs and services – from guidance counseling to music to library hours – many districts have no choice but to slash classroom teachers from their payrolls. (Click here to see an interactive database on the cuts.)

Q. It seems like school districts always pink-slip a lot of teachers, but don't end up laying them off. Will this trend continue this year?

A. School districts often notify more teachers than they anticipate needing to lay off. By law, teachers must be warned of layoffs by March 15, while a district does not finalize its spending plan until June and the state typically does not finalize its budget until later in the summer. Two years ago, school districts in Orange County warned about 1,900 educators of potential job losses, but only laid off about 100, after the governor pledged to maintain state funding levels that he previously threatened to cut. Last year, Orange County schools cut about 1,500 teaching positions, after warning nearly double that number.

Q. What will happen to schools if all those teachers get laid off?

A. When teachers get laid off, class sizes get bigger and course offerings are consolidated or eliminated. Since the mid 1990s, a 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio has been common in the primary grades, but beginning last year and continuing into next, many districts are increasing class sizes in those grades, sometimes to upward of 30 kids each. This trend is responsible for many of the planned layoffs.

Q. Why are school districts making cuts in the classroom? Can't they just cut more administrators?

A. Orange County school districts typically spend close to 90 percent of their general funds on salaries and benefits for employees, according to state data. About 70 percent goes to salaries, and the remaining 20 percent goes to benefits. Administrators are the smallest category of worker, representing on average less than 4 percent of a district's staff. Teachers make up about 46 percent of the total.

(Click here to see our story on class size increases and furlough plans.)

Q. I heard a lot about state funding cuts to public education last year, but not as much this year. Why are school districts cutting now?

A. School districts are still reeling from the funding they lost during state budget cutting in February 2009 and July 2009. They were caught so off-guard by the magnitude and timing of the cuts, especially the one in the middle of the summer, that many of them weren't able to make sufficient cuts for the 2009-10 school year. This has forced many to essentially defer some of this year's cuts to 2010-11. Additionally, many districts have spent the past few years tightening their spending practices to soften the blow of state cuts; now there's nothing left to tighten and the funding levels still haven't been restored.

Q. How much of our taxpayer dollars are going to support K-12 schools now?

USC Provost C.L. 'Max' Nikias to succeed Steven Sample as president - Los Angeles Times

USC Provost C.L. 'Max' Nikias to succeed Steven Sample as president - Los Angeles Times

USC Provost C.L. 'Max' Nikias to succeed Steven Sample as president

Nikias, the second in command, will become the university's 11th president in August.

March 12, 2010|By Larry Gordon

C. L. "Max" Nikias, USC's provost and second-in-command, will become its next president, succeeding Steven B. Sample on Aug. 3 at the helm of the 34,000-student university, school officials announced Thursday.

Nikias, a Cypriot-born electrical engineer with expertise in radar and sonar, was long mentioned as the leading candidate to become USC's 11th president, so much so that some trustees reportedly argued against conducting a national search. But the board went ahead, considering 75 other educators before returning to a man well-known and well-liked on campus.

A former dean of USC's school of engineering, Nikias, 57, said Thursday that he hopes to build on Sample's accomplishments, by intensifying fundraising efforts. He plans to announce, early on, a major campaign aimed at doubling USC's endowment in the next 10 years.

"It's not a change of direction but an acceleration," he said in an interview. "This university is on the ascent under President Sample for 19 years. We can move the needle and move this university into what I call the pantheon of undisputed elite universities." Among other goals, he said, was improving the academic standings of USC's medical school and hospitals.

He also said he plans to strengthen USC's already extensive ties to Asian nations and colleges, beyond the large number of Indian and Chinese graduate students the university enrolls. "Our vision is that we want USC to become the university of the Pacific Century, the intellectual and cultural center of this world tied to the Pacific Century," Nikias said, his Greek-Cypriot accent still strong.

USC Board Chairman Edward P. Roski Jr. described Nikias as "a remarkable and inspiring leader, a brilliant scholar and the best possible person to lead our university forward."

But the campus' new leader will have big shoes to fill. Sample has been president for 19 years, a longevity rare in American academia, and he boosted the university's academic prestige and financial resources significantly. Since 1991, USC has risen from 51st to 26th place in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of national research universities.

USC's endowment also increased dramatically, to a pre-recession peak of $4 billion, but then fell to about $3 billion, relatively small for such a large research university. And, in difficulties likely to be inherited by his successor, Sample's recent tenure was troubled by NCAA investigations into allegations of improper gifts to USC athletes and whether the university lost "institutional control" over its athletics program.

Maldonado to Newsom: Bring it on - San Jose Mercury News

Maldonado to Newsom: Bring it on - San Jose Mercury News

Maldonado to Newsom: Bring it on

By Kurtis Alexander -- Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 03/12/2010 01:58:51 PM PST

Updated: 03/12/2010 06:04:40 PM PST

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, recently tapped by the governor to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, said Friday he's not fazed by his latest rival for the lieutenant governor seat: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

"I feel I can beat Gavin Newsom," said Maldonado, who represents part of Santa Cruz County and is considered a moderate Republican. "I've been reasonable, pragmatic, and I think the voters of California want someone who has been bipartisan."

Newsom, who dropped out of the governor's race last year, announced Friday morning that he will compete for the state's No. 2 job in the upcoming Democratic primary. Maldonado, meanwhile, is running in the Republican primary and hopes, before the June contest, to seal his nomination to the vacant post, giving him the advantage of incumbency come the election.

"I don't know much about Gavin. I just know what I read," Maldonado said. "Obviously the people of San Francisco think he's a good representative, and they've elected him twice.... I welcome him to the race."

The office of lieutenant governor is largely ceremonial, with the exception of filling in when the governor's absent and casting votes on a number of key committees. Some have used the seat as a springboard to higher office. Garamendi left last year after being elected to Congress.

Newsom, 42, will face Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn in the lieutenant governor primary, a challenge many say won't be easy for a San

Francisco politician known to the rest of the state as the mayor who allowed gay marriage at City Hall.

"We tend to live in a bubble in Northern California. We extrapolate from that that he has statewide popularity and he's yet to prove that," said Larry Gerston, a professor of politics at San Jose State University.

Student Loan Bill Opposed by Group Packed With Ex-Clinton Aides - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Bill Opposed by Group Packed With Ex-Clinton Aides - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Bill Opposed by Group Packed With Ex-Clinton Aides

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

“This wasteful spending was first identified by President Bill Clinton,” Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, declared on Thursday at a news conference in the Capitol.

Mr. Miller was explaining why he believed there was an urgent need for anoverhaul of federal financial programs that have long enriched private, for-profit student lending companies.

The government pays the private banks a fee to make risk-free loans using taxpayer money. The loans – already guaranteed by the federal government – are then sold back to the government. President Obama has put forward a proposal to end the program, and to instead rely on the existing government direct lending program that accomplishes the same but eliminates the profit for the middlemen. The savings would be used to increase Pell grant scholarships for low-income students.

But just a few minutes after Representative Miller had invoked Mr. Clinton’s name, the Glover Park Group, a powerhouse consulting firm founded by a cadre of former Clinton aides, was aggressively at work fighting the president’s proposal on behalf of an unnamed client.

The firm quickly attacked the effort by Mr. Miller and Senator Tom Harkin, the Democrat from Iowa and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to include the financial aid legislation in an expedited budget package along with final revisions to the Democrats’ big health care legislation.

A step down: Federal education standards - The Boston Globe

A step down: Federal education standards - The Boston Globe

A step down: Federal education standards

By Ze’ev Wurman and Sandra Stotsky

March 13, 2010

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THE OBAMA administration plans to make states adopt proposed national academic standards as a condition for receipt of federal education grants. The problem is what the administration has proposed is not near the quality of what the Commonwealth already has.

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High academic standards are the foundation of Massachusetts’s landmark education reform success. They set goals for students to reach in each year of elementary, middle, and secondary school. The standards are rigorous, but Massachusetts students have proven year after year that they are up to the challenge.

The latest draft of national English language arts and math standards looks very different. The prestigious National Math Advisory Panel identified algebra as the key to higher-level math study and recommended that more students should be ready to enroll in Algebra I by eighth grade. But it is unlikely that these standards could even support the teaching of such a course in ninth grade.

Rather than relying on English teachers to determine the relative complexity of the texts they would assign, the draft also recommends use of a formula that would be unusable by the average teacher. Indeed, the formula shows “The Grapes of Wrath’’ to be at a second- or third-grade level of complexity.

Some argue that subsequent drafts of the national standards will be better. However, they are based on a fundamentally different foundation than those in place in Massachusetts.

While the Commonwealth’s standards steadily move to higher levels of academic

Latino conference explores role in higher education | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Latino conference explores role in higher education | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Latino conference explores role in higher education

JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Published: March 13, 2010

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Many people inaccurately believe that Hispanic students are new to public schools and higher education, state Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson said yesterday.

In 1931, he pointed out, Mexican-American parents in Southern California fought a court battle to end separate-but-equal education for their children -- two decades before the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision banning segregation in public schools.

He made his remarks at the fourth annual Virginia Latino Higher Education Network's Encuentro at Virginia State University, which drew about 60 people, mostly Hispanic college faculty and administrators from across the state.

That history "shows that Hispanic parents have been involved in their children's education for a very long time," said Robinson, who grew up in California.

Today, more Hispanic students are taking Advanced Placement courses and the ACT college entrance exams than ever, he said.

"We're moving in the right direction," he said.

The Latino Higher Education Network is nonprofit statewide organization made up of Hispanic and non-Hispanic college and university faculty and administrators.

The two-day conference, which ends today, focused on Hispanic leadership and students in higher education. Sessions included Hispanic women leading the way, planning and access for students, and challenges of illegal immigrants wanting to attend college.

While California has one of the largest Hispanic populations among the states, Virginia has experienced tremendous growth in the past decade, according to the U.S. census.

Census figures show the Hispanic population is now about 460,000, or about 6.8 percent of the Virginia population. Last fall, 4.3 percent of the college students were Hispanic, compared with 2.8 percent 10 years ago, according to the State Council of Higher Education.

Deborah Santiago, vice-president for policy and research from the Washington-based Excelencia in

State sifting through college transfer requirements - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

State sifting through college transfer requirements - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

State sifting through college transfer requirements

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By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com

Published: Saturday, Mar. 13, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

It's supposed to be the path to an affordable, high-quality education: attend a Californiacommunity college for two years, then transfer to one of the state's public universities.

In reality, though, few community collegestudents who set out to transfer actually make it to the university gates – and those who do often take more than two years to get there. They are mired by dozens of bureaucratic roadblocks, from conflicting academic calendars, to an outdated computer program that doesn't accurately track which classes count toward transferring, to entrance requirements that vary from one university to the next – even within the same major.

And that's despite numerous attempts over the years to smooth the transfer process for students moving from community college to theUniversity of California or the California State University.

Student Loan Provisions May Ease Passage of Health Care Bill - Prescriptions Blog - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Provisions May Ease Passage of Health Care Bill - Prescriptions Blog - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Provisions May Ease Passage of Health Care Bill

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Many House Democrats reacted enthusiastically on Friday to the word that a proposed overhaul of student loan programs would be included with major health care legislation in an expedited budget package to be offered in Congress.

The student loan overhaul would end government subsidies to private, commercial student lenders that have profited handsomely by making virtually risk-free loans using taxpayer money. The education bill would also redirect billions of dollars in savings from ending the payments to an array of popular education programs, including expanded Pell grants for low-income students.

As a result, some supporters of the health care bill said they were confident the financial aid measure would help generate votes for the overall package.

A look at the vote tallies for the education and health care bills illustrates their point.

The House adopted its health care bill on Nov. 7 by a vote of 220 to 215, with 39 Democrats in opposition. The education bill, however, won even more

Education foundation hosts forum on teacher pay - San Jose Mercury News

Education foundation hosts forum on teacher pay - San Jose Mercury News

Education foundation hosts forum on teacher pay

by Shannon Barry

Posted: 03/12/2010 10:37:02 AM PST

Updated: 03/12/2010 10:37:02 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge

Silicon Valley professionals were evaluating the issue of alternative pay concepts in relation to Race to the Top funding just hours before Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, found out California was no longer in the running for phase one of the $4.35 billion in funds, which is the single largest pool of discretionary funding for education reform in U.S. history.

Silicon Valley Education Foundation held an education forum last Wednesday at Synopsys Inc. in Sunnyvale to discuss whether changing the current pay system for educators would play a factor in helping accelerate student achievement and improve public education. Former journalist John Fensterwald moderated the two-hour discussion that drew in widely different viewpoints from administrative, business, teaching, local and statewide angles.

"Our goal today is to explore alternative pay concepts and see what are the disadvantages, advantages and obstacles," Fensterwald said. "We have an excellent panel to do that."

Panelists included Thomas Ezrin, vice president of global compensation, benefits and mobility of Flextronics; Marc Liebman, superintendent of the Berryessa Union School District; Jim Russell, principal of Del Mar High School; Dean Vogel, vice president of the California Teachers Association; and Jeff Camp, chairman of the Full Circle Fund's Education Impact Circle.

Camp opened the educational forum with a 12-minute presentation summarizing the importance of teaching and the

weight of compensation.

"I wanted to start this whole conversation with a picture of an important indicator of success. The completion of a huge important milestone for students graduating from high school," he began. "The way they get there is with the support of effective teachers."

He continued, asking those in the audience: "Why would teachers say this is a rewarding profession?"

Answers varied but circled around a similar theme of helping students grow. He then asked what pay is for, getting